May The Gods Be Never Than You Braver
by Camille Amelia
Summary: Scisaac fan-fiction! Things get messy before they get sexy with Isaac and Stiles when Derek does something he will never be forgiven for...
1. Disbelief and Disaster

Stiles is cold, and wet, and currently leaning against a huge tree trunk, shaking uncontrollably. He woke up in the forest a while ago and has been wandering aimlessly through the trees since, with absolutely no idea where he is or how he got there. His memory is fuzzy, but the last thing he remembers is taking Scott home after school, then driving home and hitting something on the way. When he got out of the car, he was confused that there was nothing behind the jeep, and after that everything went black. Now he's stranded, who knows where, and has no idea if anyone knows he's missing. He starts to panic, before remembering that his dad always calls him if he's working late and if Stiles doesn't pick up he always calls Scott to check up on him. For one of the first times in his life, Stiles is really glad that his dad is almost an over-protective parent. From what Stiles can tell, it's late at night as the forest is almost pitch black, the only light coming from the sliver of moon above his head. By this time his father must have realised that Stiles was missing. Stiles just hoped that he found him soon because at this rate, he was going to freeze to death.

After freaking out a little, Stiles comes back into full consciousness and his head is pounding, most of the pain coming from the back of his skull. He tentatively touches the back of his head and when he looks at his hand, it is covered in blood. His hair is matted and the blood has made its way down his neck and is beginning to soak into the back of his ripped t-shirt. He can also feel a throbbing in his leg, and looks down to find a huge gash running from his knee to mid-thigh. His jeans are ripped and, soaked in blood. Stiles can also feel at least ten other places where he must have run into branches or fallen on sharp objects. His feet are bare and covered in scratches, and his hands have cuts and scrapes from stumbling through the woods. He can't seem to concentrate on any one injury, and the pain is almost overwhelming, but the adrenaline pumping through his veins makes him keep moving. Holding himself up with trees and crawling at some points, he tries to travel in one direction, hoping that he might reach the edge of the trees somewhere or get to a river or some form of civilisation.

While traipsing through the woods, Stiles' blood loss begins to set in and he feels light headed. To add to his situation, it began raining just after he woke up, meaning that along with branches and trees to avoid, there were now puddles and the ground was muddy and slippery. His clothes are drenched and the rain stings as is creeps into his wounds. His feeble attempt at going anywhere becomes more helpless and he stumbles, falling to the ground at least ten times before giving up and staying on the sodden forest floor, his back against a tree. He can barely keep his eyes open at this point and snippets of the afternoon and night are coming back to him gradually. He can now remember the distinct sound of footsteps before he blacked out, and the pain of someone hitting him with what must have been a piece of wood judging by the wound on the back of his head. He could also recall being on a cold concrete floor at some point.

Only half awake, Stiles decides to call for help. Hoping that maybe one of the werewolves are in earshot. After yelling 'Help' until his throat hurts he gives up and almost falls asleep, before remembering that he might have a concussion, and sleep probably isn't the best idea. He sits leaning against the tree, his leg aching and his head feeling like it's about to explode. His hands and feet are raw and a mixture of rain and blood is dripping in his eyes. Clothes ripped and dirty, wounds stinging and bleeding, he is almost ready to give up hope when he hears branches breaking to his left. He quickly looks in the direction of the noise, making his head hurt, and sees Isaac standing ten metres from him through barely open eyes. Although Isaac looks extremely cute in the rain, from the look of distress and horror on his face, Stiles guesses that he doesn't. (This time anyway.) Isaac is soaking wet, his white t-shirt clinging to his toned abs and his hands covering his mouth in shock. He stares at Stiles a moment longer before rushing over to his side, touching his arm carefully and saying "Oh god" about a twenty times while looking at the state of Stiles. He touches every one of Stiles' limbs, making sure nothing is broken, and each time he sees another serious injury he winces, small agonised sounds escaping his throat. "Stiles, Stiles what happened." He asks gently, his face set in a mask of worry. Stiles isn't sure if it is tears or just rain running down his face, but his pained expression is something he can't stand. All he wants to do is tell Isaac that everything will be okay but his voice is almost gone and all he manages to say is "Isaac." Isaac looks extremely upset, his mouth turned downwards in a way that if Stiles wasn't in such a bad condition, he would have thought was sad yet strangely adorable, Stiles is also trying to appreciate how close Isaac's face is to his own and how easy it would be to kiss him right now. Isaac must see the desire in his eyes because the worry fades a little from his face as he too realises how little space there is between the two of them. The moment of connection ends however, when blood starts running down Stiles forehead, and Isaac's eyebrows rise again in worry. After looking over Stiles once more, Isaac lifts him off the ground, cradling him to his chest, and begins carrying him. In which direction Stiles has no clue, but he soon falls asleep in Isaac's arms.

When he wakes up, he is warm and dry and doesn't need a werewolf nose to smell that he is in a hospital. There is light flooding through the cracks in the curtains and Isaac is sitting in the chair across from him. Mrs McCall is putting a bandage over the cut on his leg. "Hey." Isaac says, looking relieved when Stiles opens his eyes, and jumping out of the chair. Their relationship was one of confusion, lust, and forbidden fruit. They'd been 'studying' together for weeks now and they hadn't quite managed to get much school work done. The only problem was, it wasn't the lust part that was keeping them from their work, as much as they wanted to, their time was mainly taken up by deep conversations and staring into each other's eyes. As crazy as that might sound for two teenage guys, it was the truth, and although what they really wanted to do most of the time was tear each other's clothes off, their feelings were a mix of confusion as well as desire. They had both liked girls their whole lives and when they had felt a connection between them it had taken months for either of them to even hint at what their feelings were. Now they were more confused than ever, not only about what had happened to Stiles last night, but what exactly their relationship was.

"How do you feel?"

Stiles tries to sit up, but soon remembers how bad the wound on his head is when everything begins to spin.

"Wow, wow. You need to lie down." Mrs McCall says with a smile while pushing Stiles back down onto the bed. "If you stay still and let me finish bandaging this leg then I'll leave you alone for a while."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. The bandaging bit I mean, I'm not trying to get rid of you." Stiles says back, rushing the last part of his sentence to make it clear that he is definitely not trying to get rid of her, even though a little privacy would be nice…

"Hmm, sure you aren't." She replies sarcastically, implying that she knows they'd rather she give them some time alone. After bandaging Stiles leg she ask him if anything hurts and then leaves saying "Just call out if you need me. I'll be back in half an hour to check up on you."

When Mrs McCall has left the room, shutting the door behind her, Isaac walks over to Stiles side and grabs his hand, careful not to pull on any of the cords attached. "I was so worried about you Stiles, you scared me, I had no idea what happened to you and I couldn't do anything to fix it and I just, I feel like it was my fault." By the time Isaac stops talking he is blubbering and this time Stiles knows that it's tears running down his face. He pulls Isaac down to him and holds Isaac's head against his chest, resting his chin on top of his head and whispering into his hair "Shh, shh, Isaac I'm okay now, I'm okay. It wasn't your fault at all, you're the one who saved me. I'm fine." Stiles has tear trails down his own face by this time and Isaac is making small whimpering noises into his hospital gown. They stay in each other's arms for a while until Isaac finds his voice again and says "I just wish I could have protected you."

Isaac walks around the bed and lies down next to Stiles, making sure not to touch any of his injuries. They stay like this for a while, their arms around each other, until Isaac hears Mrs McCall outside the door and jumps up, trying to look as normal as possible.

"Hey boys." She says, oblivious to what was happening just before she entered. She doesn't wait for a response from the before saying "How are you feeling Stiles?"

"Um, okay I guess."

Mrs McCall moves across the room and checks on all the cords and wires attached to Stiles while replying, "Okay well that's good considering you had a concussion and injuries that some people wouldn't have survived. Your dad's been worried sick because he couldn't get here to see you, but he just rang and said he'd be here soon. I'll be back when he gets here." She smiles and touches Stiles' arm sympathetically then walks out of the room again.

Later that day, after Stiles is discharged from the hospital and his dad has gone back to work leaving Isaac to take care of Stiles, he has a flash back to last night. Seeing the blank, scared look on Stiles' face Isaac immediately jumps up from his chair and sits on the bed next to Stiles stroking his arm. When he asks what's wrong Stiles replies "I remember now. It was Derek. He, he was the one who took me, and… oh god, oh god no, no, no…" Stiles is shaking in fear and has tears running down his face.

Shaking Stiles gently Isaac says "Stiles, Stiles what is it? What did he do to you?"

"He, he… no, no I can't, I can't say."

"Stiles, what did Derek do to you? He can't hurt you now, I won't let him!"

"No, no, he… he… it was cold on the concrete floor Isaac, I told him to stop but he wouldn't, he wouldn't stop…" His words are broken up by sobs and Isaac's t-shirt now has tear stains down the front.

"What wouldn't he stop Stiles?"

"He, he took my clothes … Isaac I didn't want to I, I told him to stop! He wouldn't stop!"

"Did he… Stiles did he… did he do things to you that you… that you hadn't done before? Things that… things that you might only do with… with someone you loved?" Anger was creeping into Isaac's voice along with sadness, sorrow and about a million other things he probably shouldn't be feeling. He can't bring himself to say what really happened to Stiles because some part of him was still hoping that it might not be true. How could Derek rape Stiles? Yes it was a well-known fact in the packs that Derek had a major thing for Stiles and yes that was why Stiles and Isaac's relationship had been so secret, but sexual assault? Did Derek really stoop that low? Isaac couldn't believe it, this was the stuff of crime TV shows and city streets, not Beacon Hills wolf packs.

"Yes Isaac! I, I told him to stop… but he wouldn't stop…"

"Shh, shh, he can't hurt you now."

Once Stiles has calmed down and Isaac has his rage under control, Isaac climbs into bed with Stiles and spoons him, his body protecting Stiles from anything and everything that he should have already.


	2. Revenge and Romance

Isaac storms into Derek's apartment, his heavy footsteps echoing through the open space. "Derek!" He calls, knowing that he is somewhere in the studio because he can hear his heartbeat.

"Isaac." Derek says, appearing behind Isaac and giving him a fright.

"How could you Derek!? Why?" Isaac yells, taking a few steps towards him.

"What are you talking about?" Derek replies, almost too casually.

"You know what I'm talking about! Stiles is a wreck! You've scarred him for life Derek, physically and emotionally!"

Looking shocked, Derek defensively responds "What? Isaac that's none of your business! How do you even know…"

As if on cue, a gust of wind moves through the open window, blowing Isaac's scent, along with the distinct smell of Stiles that lingers on his skin and clothes, towards Derek. The shock and realisation on Derek's face is priceless. It is one of those rare moments when he is caught off guard and Isaac takes the opportunity to rub it in. He walks right up to Derek, looking down at him and grabs his shoulders roughly, pushing him to the ground. As Isaac starts to speak he steps forwards, making Derek cower and begin to retreat towards the door.

"Yes Derek, I've been with him since I found him in the woods last night, where you left him to die! He would have if I hadn't heard him. Oh and that's not all either! I've been with him for months now, I'm actually surprised you didn't realise earlier with you 'superior alpha senses'! You're such an ass Derek! Taking advantage of someone! I thought you were better than that but I thought wrong, you obviously have such low standards that you would force someone who had no feelings for you, at all, to do something they clearly aren't comfortable with. How could you? I can't even stand being in the same room as you! You're a disgrace and I hate that you're hurting someone I love!" The hurt and anger in Isaac's voice is rising and his stance is noticeably superior to Derek's crouched, cowering position on the floor.

In an attempt at some kind of comeback Derek says "Someone you love! Isaac you're too young to love him! You gay little bastard, you can't do this to me! He wanted it!"

"He wanted it!? There is something seriously fucked up in that sick little head of yours Derek because the boy I love did not want that to happen!" Isaac's anger peaks and he punches Derek, blood spurting from his nose and splattering all over the floor. In a last defence Derek says "I gave you this Isaac! Don't, don't do this to me… or maybe you're just like you father!"

A final switch flicks in Isaacs mind at that remark and after uttering "I think that's a chance I'm willing to take." He attacks Derek with all of his strength, the amount of anger in him only making his blows more vicious and his scratches deeper. Derek's feeble attempts at fighting back fail because of the amount of rage in Isaac and once Derek is a bloody mess on the floor and Isaac is covered in Derek's, and some of his own blood, he grabs Derek by the remains of his shirt and drags him out of the apartment, and out onto the street.

"This is where you belong Derek, out on the street with the rest of the rapists and murderers and all of the horrible people in this world!" Isaac yells in fury, kicking Derek one last time before leaving him on the blood splattered sidewalk coughing up who know what and crawling in the direction of the wall.

Isaac is about to round the corner of Derek's apartment block when he hears someone step out of the building and says while clapping "Bravo, Bravo! Wow, that was quite a show! But where's the big finale?" He spins around to find Peter leaning against the brick wall, gesturing towards the bruised and bloodied version Derek who is presently trying to sit up. "Come on Isaac, it would be easy! Don't you want him to pay for what he did? If you killed him all your problems would disappear. You would be stronger, faster, you'd be the alpha! You could protect Stiles from everything, Isaac. You know you want to, just look at him! He's a ruthless killer! And now he's a rapist too! You'd be doing us all a favour, Isaac, just kill him." As Peter speaks, Isaac is becoming convinced that it would be a good idea to kill Derek. He is a killer and he is a rapist. He's also the person who helped Isaac though a lot, and although he is furious about what happened to Stiles, he can't kill him. Yes Isaac has lost all respect for him and is never going to talk to him again but he will not kill Derek.

"It's tempting, but I think I'll pass. I'm not going to put him out of his misery, he deserves to suffer." Isaac replies, before turning and walking away. As he moves away from the scene in the alley, he feels some link inside him disappear and he no longer feels any connection to Derek. He suddenly feels no bond between him and his former alpha. Former alpha. It feels good for Isaac to hear that even if he is just saying it in his head, so he picks up his pace and jogs for a while before realising that he is covered in blood and probably shouldn't be in public. He takes a detour to the school, cutting across the lacrosse field and going in the back door to the locker room (which Scott gave him a key to) so as no one sees him. He takes a quick shower and gets changed into the spare clothes from his locker, before setting off again in the direction of Stiles' house.

When he arrives at the Stilinski house he notices the Sheriffs' car in the driveway and can hear voices inside. He waits until they are finished talking before knocking on the front door. He hears footsteps and after a moment Sheriff Stilinski arrives at the door and lets him in, greeting him warmly. "So Isaac, I can't tell you how thankful I am right now… I mean thank you for finding Stiles last night. I don't know what I'd do without you actually. Not only is he alive but he's also passing chemistry since you two have been studying together!" He says with a laugh, lightening the mood, unaware of what the boys actually do when they are 'studying'.

With a laugh Isaac replies "It's my pleasure Sheriff." With a cheeky sidewards glance at Stiles who is lying on the sofa.

"Isaac, if you don't mind, it would be great if you could stay with Stiles until I get back tonight, I just have a few loose ends to tie up at work." He looks haggard like he hasn't slept for days and should probably not be going back to work but Isaac can't tell him what to do so he says with a smile "Yeah, sure."

After Mr Stilinski has left, Isaac walks over and sits in the recliner next to the sofa where Stiles is laying, moving it so he can see Stiles' face. "You know dads gonna kill you if you don't put that chair back before he gets home." Stiles says with a smile. "He has it perfectly positioned so you don't get any glare on the TV." Isaac laughs and replies "I don't think I'll have any trouble putting it back in the right spot Stiles, the dust piles on the floor give a pretty clear outline of where it goes. How are you by the way?"

After chuckling, Stiles says "I'm okay... Where have you been?"

"I, uh… I went to see Derek."

"And?"

"And I'm not in his pack anymore."

"Well I'm not going to complaining about that. And Isaac, I swear what I said… it was nothing… I was probably imagining it, maybe it never even happened... it just… it doesn't matter."

After a pause Isaac replies, "That's not what you said earlier, and it does matter. Stiles he can't do anything to you now, I made that pretty clear when I saw him. I get it if you don't want to tell anyone , but you can't just pretend it didn't happen. Things like this, they change us. But you just have to keep going… that's something I've had to do my whole life."

"Okay Isaac, I've had my fair share of horrific experiences too, dead mother, wolf as a best friend, I live in a town of things that aren't meant to exist outside fairy tales for god's sake. I wouldn't exactly say my life has been boring, I know I'll get over it, but just please don't say anything… to anyone."

"You know I'd never tell anyone Stiles, and you won't get over it, you'll get through it. I'm here to help, I always will be." Isaac is leaning over resting his elbow on his knee, and his head on his hand. He can hear Stiles' heart beating a steady rhythm and the close proximity of their faces takes him by surprise. He hadn't realised how close he had been getting as he spoke. He moves to pull his face away, blushing and feeling like he broke some kind of barrier but before he can move away Stiles grabs the front of Isaac's t-shirt and pulls him down so that their noses are touching. His voice is still slightly hoarse as he says "Thank you." Before Isaac can object, their lips are brushing against each other's. After a second Isaac moves his body to hover over Stiles on the sofa, careful not to touch his stitches or bandages, and kisses him properly, their lips moving together and tongues sliding against one another. The lust and pent up sexual energy from the past month of resisting each other builds, as their kisses become more aggressive and passionate, both having an equal desire to rip each other's clothes off and do much more than just kiss. Stiles has pulled up the edges of Isaac's shirt, his hands skimming over the smooth, bare skin of his waist and lower back, and Isaac is intently sucking at Stiles bottom lip, resisting the urge to trail kisses down his torso and maybe even further down than his belly button. The yearning inside them becomes stronger and stronger, and they almost can't take it any longer, when Isaac's wolf hearing picks up the sound of a motorbike slowing to pull into the driveway. He quickly yet carefully jumps up off the couch (and Stiles)and moves back into his chair, moving it back to its dust pile so that the distance between him and Stiles isn't suspicious. They both quickly wipe their faces clean of any drool they may have acquired in the last ten minutes and make sure their clothes don't look askew.

"It's Scott." Isaac says to a confused –looking Stiles, right before Scott comes bursting through the front door with a worried look on his face.

"Stiles! Why didn't you tell me what happened? I had no clue 'till I went to see Derek about five minutes ago and he told me that I found him the way I did because Isaac was angry about something that happened to you. Are you okay?" Isaac and Stiles exchange glances, relieved that Derek hadn't spilled the beans about their relationship, but both wondering what the cover story would be for that little incident. Luckily Stiles had become a professional liar and even though he rarely lied to Scott, desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine! Derek, he uh, knocked me out last night then left me in the woods. I would have died if Isaac hadn't found me and…"

"Let's just say when I realised what a dick Derek is I decided to quit his pack. I'd been thinking about it for a while but seeing that he would basically kill Stiles for no reason, was the last straw." Isaac cuts in.

"He looked pretty bad Isaac, I don't think even I could have done that to him, you must have said something pretty significant for him to loose enough focus to get beaten up that bad."

"Well yeah, I was pretty damn pissed. It was a bit of revenge for me too. Derek has never exactly been my best friend."

"Ah, wow this is a lot to take in… wait since when have you two been friends though?" Scott says, narrowing his eyes like he's found that there's a piece of the puzzle missing. Stiles decides to tell the truth about this one, the less lies he has to tell Scott the better, so he explains that Isaac has been helping him with Chemistry homework for a while.

When Scott believes he's gotten the full story from the two of them, he leaves saying "Call me if you need anything." and once they've heard his motorbike disappear down the street Isaac says, "Stiles, we can't keep lying to everyone about us. Especially since we now know that there is an us after what happened today."

"I know. It's killing me to lie to Scott, it kills me to lie to him about anything, but something as big as us being together hurts even more."

"We'll have to figure out a way to tell everyone because us being together, I like the sound of that." Isaac says with an extremely cute grin spreading across his face before he bites his lip, the shy side of him making an appearance.

"Me too." Stiles replies.

Subconsciously Isaac has been closing the gap between them and when Stiles reaches out to hold his hand, Isaac leans over and kisses Stiles, softly, but with enough passion to rekindle the fire in the pit of his stomach.


	3. Innocent and Infatuated

Stiles looks over to where Isaac is sitting at their Lunch table. Isaac looks over at him though the corner of his eye, and when he sees that Stiles is already watching him he smiles. He has let his hair grow out a little and his curls frame his almost-too-innocent face. They have not yet told anyone about them so Isaac looks away quickly and bites his lip, still smiling to himself. As Stiles walks over the their table he hears Scott say "Earth to Isaac! What the hell are you smiling about?" with a laugh. Isaac replies "Nothing… just thinking." absently, as Stiles sits down across from him. Lydia, Allison and Scott are sitting at the table, all at various stages through eating their lunch.

"Ha, sure Isaac! Those puppy dog eyes of yours are telling a different story!" Lydia coos, following her statement with "Pun intended." Everyone laughs and Isaac blushes but doesn't say anything so Allison pipes up, a grin on her face, and changes the conversation to a different subject.

"So, I'm having a movie night at my place tonight because dad is out of town and you're all invited. I invited Erica and Danny already and there will be pizza, popcorn, chocolate and as many Harry Potter movies as we can stay awake for, who's in?"

Everyone produces multiple 'Yeah's!' and 'Me's!' and they all agree on meeting at Allison's at 6pm.

The rest of the day fly's by and before the boys know it they're making their way to lacrosse practice together, after an interesting Chemistry lesson filled with cheeky smiles and smitten -don't let anyone see us rubbing knees under the table- looks. They reach the locker room and part ways to get changed. They make their way to the field with Scott and talk for a while before Coach Finstock gets them started on some stupid training exercise involving dodging and crap like that. Half the team is on the field at a time and Isaac and Scott's group is up first while Stiles has to sit on the bench. The group that is on the field is taking turns dodging then trying to score a goal so when it isn't Isaacs turn, he and stiles look at each other, smiling like fools and making faces. Isaac is so caught up in the moment that he doesn't realise it's his turn.

"Isaac what the fuck do you look so pleased about? Get your ass back to practicing now or I'll have you doing suicide runs 'till you turn forty!" Coach barks, before blowing his whistle.

After practice Stiles and Isaac grab their stuff and drive back to stiles house to shower and get ready for Allison's 'movie night'.

"Isaac?" Stiles says once they've both showered and are shirtless in his bedroom.

"Yes Stiles."

"Do you think we should start telling people about us?"

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know… do you want to?"

"Oh come on Stiles! It makes no difference to me, I don't have any family to worry about!"

"Yeah I guess if we tell people we're gonna have to tell my dad… And we both know that's gonna be fun… No one thinks we're even a little bit gay Isaac, I don't know how they'll react if we tell them that were gay together."

"I don't think anyone will really give a shit Stiles."

"Why not?"

"Because of they're really your- our, friends, or care about us at all then they'll just want us to be happy." Isaac says almost shyly. Biting his lower lip at the end of the sentence. God it makes Stiles horny when he does that, he just looks so bloody cute it's not fair.

"Oh my god Isaac. When you say shit like that… ugh… I just…" Stiles replies running his hands through his hair in sexual frustration and rolling his eyes. Isaac takes a few steps towards him and grabs Stiles hands, removing them from his hair and placing them by his sides before entangling his own fingers in stiles short –but longer than it used to be- hair.

"What about when I do shit like this?" Isaac asks stroking Stiles' cheek bones with his thumbs.

"Or like this?" He says while pushing their bodies together.

"Or this?" Isaac whispers in Stiles' ear, before moving his face in front of his and pressing a light kiss to his lips. Although all the things Isaac had just said had been questions, Stiles didn't need to answer him with his words, his boner did instead. They both look down, then back into each other's eyes and before you can say 'erection' Isaac gets one of his own. Their kisses become more intense and Stiles is steering Isaac in the direction of the bed. Isaac flips their positions around so that he can push Stiles down onto the mattress and trail kisses down his neck and chest. When Isaac reaches one of Stiles nipples and circle his tongue around it biting it gently, he feels a pull in his groin and has to sit up and push Isaac off before he gets too caught up in anything.

"What did I do?" Isaac asks, a little confused.

"Nothing, you didn't do anything, you're fucking perfect. I just can't ruin these jeans ok, its laundry day and we're meant to be going to Allison's in ten minutes." He says with a laugh.

"I could just take the jeans off?" Isaac replies with an extremely cute, pleading smile on his face.

"No." Stiles says, giving a pouty Isaac a peck on the cheek. "We have to leave."

On the drive over to Allison's they boys decide that they will tell the group they're together if there's a decent opportunity and if they do tell the group then they'll decide how they are going to tell Stiles' dad. The drive is short and the boy arrive at the same time as Lydia is getting out of her car.

"Hey guys!" She says while they are walking up to where she's waiting near the front doors of the building. They all ride the elevator up to Allison's floor and Stiles knocks on the door. It takes a while for anyone to come to the door and when Allison finally opens it she is smiling smugly and fixing her hair and clothes.

"Sorry guys I was, uh, busy! Come in, come in!" When they go inside Allison shows the all the living room where there is a giant flat screen TV and three sofas, and then takes them into the kitchen. Scott comes wandering down the hallway a moment later pulling on a t-shirt with his jeans still unbuttoned, and they all groan.

"Can you two not go five freaking minutes without jumping each other's bones?" Stiles says.

"Man, just 'cause you aren't getting any doesn't mean the rest of us can't have a little fun." Scott retorts smugly. Lydia makes a muffled 'burn', and Stiles has to bite his tongue so as not to spill the beans about him and Isaac. Yes he wants everyone to know, but not just so he can win an argument.

After a few minutes of light, non-sex life oriented conversation, Danny and Erica arrive and everyone grabs some pizza and settles in on the sofas to begin watching 'Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone'. As it turns out Isaac and Stiles can sit next to each other without it being suspicious, because Allison and Scott obviously have a sofa to themselves, Lydia and Danny are sharing because they're good friends and Erica is lying on the floor by her own choice. The two boys are sitting with their heads at opposite ends of the sofa and their feet up in the middle, their socked toes touching casually enough that nobody looks twice. Their discreet game of footsies is giving them both shivers of pleasure that no one else seems to notice. Occasionally stealing a glance at one another and meeting eyes for just long enough to feel the desire that burns deep within them both.

When the first movie finishes, Lydia gets up to change the disc and Stiles decides to go grab a drink from the kitchen.

"I'm going to get a glass of water, anyone want anything?" He asks, giving a slight head gesture to indicate that Isaac should go with him.

"There are heaps of packets of peanut butter cups in the pantry that you can grab and the glasses are in the top right cupboard." Allison says, followed by Lydia saying that she'll have a glass of water as well.

"I'll come and help." Isaac says as he pushes himself off the couch, then follows Stiles into the kitchen.

"So, are we gonna tell them?" Stiles asks quietly as he fishes around in the cupboard for the peanut butter cups. Careful not to raise his voice so Scott doesn't hear what they're talking about.

"You choose Stiles, I really don't mind. Although I would have liked to be touching more than your feet on the couch just now." Isaac replies, biting his lip, but not looing nervous this time.

"Oh, god shut up with your dirty little mouth. I honestly had no idea you could talk anything even remotely dirty before the other day. You just look too fucking innocent and cute." Isaac is filling up three glasses with water from the jug in the fridge with his back to Stiles, smirking over his shoulder. After he puts the jug back in the fridge Stiles walks up behind him and kisses his neck, placing a few more kisses there before Isaac spins around and puts his hands on Stiles' waist. Their kisses are soft but hungry and after a second Stiles finds himself sitting on the countertop with his legs wrapped around Isaac's waist and his fingers tracing patterns under the back of Isaacs's shirt. Isaac's hands are in his hair and their kissing is almost feverish, Isaac's mouth sometimes straying to bite at Stiles' jaw or place soft kisses down his neck.

"Oh, wow. Sorry guys! Um, since when has this been a thing? Why haven't you told me you two are a couple?" Lydia says, her expression not even a little embarrassed at walking in on them, but mainly disappointed and confused.  
"Oh my god Lydia." Stiles says in an exasperated tone, before laughing and continuing "It's been like a week okay? Just chill you haven't missed out on anything!"

"Oh okay, am I the only one who didn't know about this, or is it a secret?" She replies, pointing a finger at the two of them who are still holding each other the way they were when she walked in.

"Well it was kind of a secret…" Isaac says shyly, moving away from Stiles slightly as he slides off the counter. They are standing next to each other now but their bodies are still touching.

"It was so, not a secret guys, god you think you'd give me a little more credit Stiles. I've known you my whole life bro, I know when you're lying to me about stuff like this. I picked up on it the other day when the whole thing with Derek happened and Isaac beat the shit out of him just because you two were 'friends'." Scott cuts in, him and Allison appearing in the kitchen with Erica and Danny not far behind. Stiles winces slightly when Scott says Derek's name. No one except Isaac know what really happened and he is hoping that Scott's bestie lie detector only works with relationships.

"Really? Was it that obvious?" Stiles asks, pushing the thought of Derek out of his mind.

"Yeah, kind of." Scott replies smugly.

"So who else knew?" Lydia asks, her hands on her hips like she's angry that other people knew before she did.

"I did. I'm gay guys did you really think I wouldn't notice the looks in Lacrosse practice and the leg touching in Chemistry?" Danny adds.

"Scott told me." Allison says with a sheepish smile on her face.

"How was I the only one who didn't know about this?" Lydia says still annoyed by the fact she hadn't known.

"So nearly all of you knew and you didn't say anything? Went along with our 'just friends' thing and Scott, you even made a joke about my love life. Come on dude, was it really necessary to make fun of us this whole time?" Stiles says while ignoring Lydia, his tone almost agitated but still amused by the situation.

"Yep. That joke I made before about you 'not getting any' was just a test to see if we could get you the spill the beans about you and Isaac." Scott replies, with a still-smug expression on his face.

"Well thanks a lot guys." Stiles says, his face annoyed before a grin appears on his face at the hilarity of this whole thing.

"Um I didn't know before now. So, okay, wait." Erica says, joining the conversation while eating a peanut butter cup she snatched off the bench. "So you two are gay? But Stiles haven't you had a major crush on Lydia for like the last ten years?"

"Come on it wasn't ten years… but yeah I did… I guess I'm not completely gay."

"Ok and Isaac? Why haven't you come out sooner? The whole gay community in Beacon Hills has been drooling over you since the day you hit puberty!" Danny says laughing.

"Um… I guess I didn't really know." Isaac replies with a shy smile.

"Yeah, until you found me!" Stiles says smugly, pulling Isaac to him with his arm round his waist. This make Isaac smile and he leans down to kiss Stiles. When they don't stop after a minute everyone makes groaning noises and Stiles and Isaac hear a chorus of muttered 'oh god's' and a few people say 'lets go watch the next movie'. Everyone but the two boys leave the kitchen they are left standing there in each other's arms, lips touching lightly.

After a while Isaac and Stiles return to the living room and sit on the couch together, Stiles resting his head on Isaac shoulder with their arms around one another. Isaac looks down at Stiles with an expression on his face that makes him look truly in love. After a moment Stiles looks up into Isaac's eyes and Isaac brings his face down so their lips meet. This wins then a chorus of 'aww's' and laughs from the rest of the group.

"Oh come on guys. Give it a rest!" Stiles says almost sarcastically, looking mainly at Scott who is sniggering , his face pressed against Allison's who is also giggling.

They're almost to the end of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' and it's about 11:30 when they hear someone knocking on the door. Allison gets up to answer it, muttering "Wonder who that is." and a moment later she returns, a frightened looking Derek who is clutching his side, following close behind. Isaac feels Stiles' muscles tense and he holds him tighter and whispers, "Don't worry, I'm here." into his hair.

"What the hell are you doing here Derek?" Isaac says defensively, while holding an almost shaking Stiles.

With a sigh and then a limp towards the group who are still sprawled on the sofas and floor he says. "I need your help. All of you."


	4. Vengeful and Victorious

"You have no fucking right to ask for help Derek. From any of us!" Isaac says, almost yelling.

Derek pauses for a moment, seeing the scared look on Stiles' face, he sighs while looking at his feet shamefully. "I know, but Isaac this is really important. Deucalion and his new pack of non-alphas are here. They've taken Cora and I can't do anything about it! I've already asked the twins to help and they said they would just to get revenge on Deucalion for abandoning them, but it's not enough."

"Why not? If his new pack isn't alphas then the three of you should be able to do whatever you're planning on your own." Scott says, cutting in before Isaac can jump off the couch and rip out Derek's throat, with his teeth.

"His new pack might not be Alphas Scott but it's not your average pack. I have no idea how he's done it in such a short amount of time but there's almost twenty of them, maybe more."

"Twenty werewolves?" Scott asks, shocked and also puzzled how that could be possible.

"Yeah. They came to my apartment about an hour ago and took Cora. Deucalion thinks she has 'potential', more than she's letting on, and I think he wants her to kill me. I'm sure he's going to lock her up or something, torture her again until she agrees to whatever he wants. Cora's smart but not smart enough to get herself out of there. Ethan and Aiden are tracking Deucalion at the moment and are going to call me when they find him. We were counting on the fact that you guys would help so we could come up with a plan and ambush them as soon as possible."

"Well I'm sorry that they took your sister but we can't help you. You're too much of a dick." Isaac says, not one ounce of sympathy in his voice.

"Speak for yourself Isaac, I'm going to help. Derek might be a dick, but we all know what it's like when your family or friends are in trouble. So whatever grudge you've got put it behind you, for now at least." Scott says, in true alpha-speech fashion. They all did have grudges against Derek, even Danny because of the fact that Derek doesn't seem to have any appreciation for human lives.

"Thank you Scott." Derek says, his head still hanging low as he tries to avoid looking at Stiles, who has surprisingly stopped cowering and is squinting at Derek, looking suspicious.

"How do we know you aren't screwing us over?" Stiles says in a low voice, startling Isaac.

"You're considering helping him? Stiles you really don't have to after what he did!" Isaac pipes up, his face a mix of confusion and disbelief .

"Isaac, I'm fine I promise." Stiles says looking into Isaac big, blue, pleading eyes reassuringly.

"I'm not screwing you over, okay. Look at the freaking hole they left in my side!" Derek states while gesturing to the slowly healing, gouged out part on the right side of his body.

It takes a few minutes of argument, and questioning looks between Isaac and Stiles before everyone agrees to help and after Lydia and Allison have patched up Derek they all wait for a call from the twins. It doesn't take long before they all hear Derek's 'bad to the bone' ringtone and moan while rolling their eyes at the irony of it. He picks up the phone and they all listen to multiple 'yep', 'mmhmm' and 'okay's' before he says "Alright, meet us all at Allison's as soon as you can." Followed by his explanation of what the twins found.

"There's a camp in the woods, they have a series of tents set up and the area around them is thick with traps. There are 22 of them including Deucalion, and Cora is in a cage made from logs in the centre of the camp. Her cage is surrounded by a circle of mountain ash meaning that Ms Morrell is still helping Deucalion." Aiden pauses, letting his brother continue the story while pointing to various points on the hand drawn map of the camp they are all huddled around in Mr Argent's office.

"We're gonna need a plan to get through their outer defences, and then we'll need something with enough force to get rid of most of the werewolves. There's no way we can take them all out even with the seven of us werewolves and Allison." Ethan says, his statement blunt and the twins' descriptions to the point.

"Seven?" Scott asks.

"Peter is on watch at the camp, just to make sure nothing big happens while we're planning." Derek replies.

"What about me, Danny and Lydia?!" Stiles asks, seeming so unfazed by being near Derek now, to the point where Isaac is wondering if anything happened at all.

"You want to put your life in danger? You all sound like you're talking about a bloody war!" Danny adds, sounding scared and a little baffled at how formal everything is.

"This is war." Derek says, without one inch of sarcasm. "And as for the three of you," He points to Stiles, Lydia and Danny. "Well one of you will need to break the ash circle, and if we're going to disarm their traps then you can help out with that too." Derek replies matter-of-factly.

They all start to organize a raid on the pack and after fifteen minutes they've come up with a decent plan. While everyone is making preparations and collecting things they'll need, Isaac grabs Stiles and pulls him into the spare bedroom shutting the door behind them. It's almost half past 12 and they are both looking weary from lack of sleep. Isaac drags Stiles over to the bed and they sit down next to each other holding hands.

"Are you sure you're okay with helping Derek?" Isaac asks, his face lined with concern.

"I'm sure. Isaac I'll be fine as long as I have you. I spent my whole life shutting things out and I've gotten pretty good at it, I know you have too, so can you just trust that I've got this under control and I'll come to you if it gets too much or if anything happens?" Stiles replies, meaning what he says about blocking things out, although he still wanted to throw up occasionally when he saw Derek. He couldn't really remember much of that night honestly, just enough to know what happened.

"I do trust you, and what you say, I just worry that this is something that's bigger than your ability to 'block things out'."

"I'm fine, I promise." Stiles says, before leaning over to kiss Isaac gently. "Actually I'm better than fine, I'm feeling good. I mean how could I not feel good with a boyfriend as gorgeous as you!" They both laugh and collapse back onto the bed kissing and giggling, until someone knocks on the door and clears their throat.

"Guys it's just Scott. Are you doing kinky things or can I come in?" Scott asks through the door.

"You can come in! Unlike some people we don't do 'kinky things' in other people houses." Stiles replies sarcastically. Scott opens the door cautiously and walks in.

"Ha, ha. Very funny Stiles, but… wait, when have I ever done that?"

"Try last week when you and Allison came over to get some of your things you left at my house. I left for literally like a minute, and came back to find you two half naked. On. My. Bed!"

"Oh, ok yeah. Anyway, we're all getting ready to leave, you guys coming?" Scott says, gesturing towards the door.

"Yep, we'll be there in a minute!" Stiles says, smiling and shooing Scott out the door.

"So you're sure you wanna do this?" Isaac asks again.

"Definitely sure!" Stiles replies, kissing Isaac playfully before pulling him out the door.

After everyone has piled into Stiles' jeep and Allison's car they start the drive to Deucalion's camp. It takes them 15 minutes to get to a point where they have to leave the cars behind and by 1am they're crouched and in position to carry out their plan.

Stage one goes off without a hitch and Lydia and Allison manage to disarm all of the traps surrounding the camp. Stage two isn't quite as easy, it involves Stiles and Danny moving in as close as they can get and wolfs bane-suffocating the guards. Right before Stiles and Danny leave, Isaac pulls Stiles aside and hugs him tightly, asking "Are you still sure?"

"I'm still sure."

"Stay safe." Isaac says before kissing him goodbye and letting him go. He looks over to where Derek is crouched behind a bush and can see tear tracks down his hard, expressionless face. Isaac isn't quite sure why they're there, but he guesses its either out of regret for what he did to Stiles or jealousy of the new relationship between Stiles and Isaac. He almost feels a pang of sympathy for him, before deciding that Derek doesn't need, or deserve it.

Stiles and Danny crawl towards the camp from opposite sides, both their target as one of the two guards who are circling the camp. Danny reaches his guard first and manages to blow a fist full of wolfs bane dust into his face before the guard spots him, the middle aged guy falls to the ground, his body limp.

On the way to the camp Scott had stopped by the vet surgery and managed to find some wolfs bane that was strong enough to basically knock out any werewolf.

When Stiles finds his young female guard she has already spotted him, he takes a chance and decided to play hurt, falling and clutching his side. When the woman reaches him she picks him up, just as Stiles had hoped, and he has a clear shot at her face, blowing the dust right at her. She too falls over and Stiles signals for the rest of his Pack to invade Deucalion's camp. They all rush in, claws and fangs out, and eyes glowing either gold, red, or in Peter's case, blue. Most of the werewolves in the new pack don't see them coming and are either dead or incapacitated in a matter of minutes, only six of the more skilled wolves and Deucalion remaining near Cora's cage, fighting although they are confused at exactly why.

The fight you'd expect from a werewolf fight such as growls, grunts and the sound of bones cracking echo across the clearing as Deucalion's pack try to figure out what's happening. Realisation strikes them when they remember about their prisoner and the fighting continues for a while, the packs fairly evenly matched.

In the end, the responsibility had fallen to Stiles to rescue Cora but he hangs back, Danny at his side for backup, because Deucalion and the what's left of his pack are surrounding her cage. Seeing the fragile, tortured looking Cora behind the fight makes Stiles glad he has Danny there because he knows he won't be able to carry her by himself.

Moments pass before Stiles gets his chance to rush to the cage and break the mountain ash circle. This is the part of the plan that had been problematic, and now thinking back, Stiles decides he should have considered the fact that Cora would be too weak to break the bars herself. He takes a shot, testing the strength of the cage and when he and Danny can't even make a dent he looks around frantically, eyes searching the crowd of werewolves for Isaac. When he finds a sweaty, concentrated looking Isaac fighting Deucalion with Scott and Erica just to his left, he breaths a sigh of relief and catches Isaac's eye, waving him over frantically. Isaac takes a final swing at the irritated looking alpha and then hurries over to Stiles' side, immediately knowing what the problem is. He smashes out three of the wooden bars in one blow, leaving scrapes across his knuckles that heal in seconds. Stiles and Danny pull Cora out of the cage with Isaacs help, and begin to half carry- half drag her out of the camp. When they reach the line of trees around the edges of the clearing Isaac lets go of Cora and breathes "I've got to go back and help, get out of here." Before running back to where Derek has now joined the fight against Deucalion. Stiles and Danny pick Cora up and are about to disappear from sight of the clearing when they hear a strangle scream, a cry that Stiles knows can only be from one person. Lydia. She was meant to stay back out of the fight and help if anyone got hurt, is Stiles' first though, before he turns around and sees her with Deucalion's arm around her throat, not quite choking her but holding her firmly. He wants to help but really, he would only make things worse so his and Danny's only choice is to stand and watch. Four of Deucalion's pack are still standing, and they are all being held down by various members of the pack, the fight at a sort of stand-still. Scott, Derek, Erica, Ethan and Aiden are all in immovable positions and can't get to Lydia without getting killed themselves. Allison has an arrow trained on Deucalion and Peter is nowhere to be seen. Isaac is the only one left who can help Lydia, but Stiles can see that he is struggling to stand, everyone can.

Isaac's arms are almost broken, not having had enough time to heal since Deucalion's last blow, he knows he needs to help Lydia but his legs give out from the pain of his injuries, and he finds himself kneeling in front of a victorious looking Deucalion with an extremely frightened Lydia in his gasp. Everything has gone quiet and the grunts and yells of the fight have died down, everyone is watching Deucalion.

"Let her go." Allison says, her voice steady but her heart racing.

"Or what? Allison you know that if I die, she dies." Deucalion replies, tracing a line across Lydia's pale throat with a long, yellow claw, his expression one of mockery.

"What if I kill you? I'm sure Lydia wouldn't mind taking one for the team." There are a few gasps at Allison's response but the rest of them can tell what she's doing, she's buying them time.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd let your best friend take one for the team wouldn't you. Allison Argent, the hunter's daughter. That little bow and arrow of yours probably wouldn't do much damage anyway, maybe I should just kill your little friend and we can all get this little conflict over and done with." Lydia make a muffled noise of terror and multiple people's muscles tense across the camp.

"I must say you did surprise me, and I'm honestly a bit pissed that my time here didn't go as planned. Cora would have made a great addition to my new pack and I have a feeling that instead of making it bigger, coming here made it decimate dramatically. What a shame that you killed them all when I could have." Deucalion continues, the eyes of both packs upon him, hateful glares and shocked expressions alike.

Deucalion has moved himself away from the centre of the fight, Lydia still in his arms breathing rapidly, and his back to the trees as if he might do a runner. There rest of the wolves, and humans, have followed, not wanting to let him get away. Isaac is almost back to full strength and is getting to his feet and mentally planning something to at least distract the alpha, when suddenly Deucalion's face goes blank, he releases Lydia, and before Isaac can react, Deucalion's upper body falls sideways, completely severed from his lower half, revealing a sword wielding Peter who is looking extremely pleased with himself, his eyes red and glinting as the morning sun peeps its head over the horizon.

After Deucalion is dead, one of the most unusual things happens, and it was pretty damn strange because this is Beacon Hills we're talking about. Peters face goes blank, he drops the bloody sword and falls to his knees, his head falling forwards. Derek rushes to his side but when has almost reached Peter he is knocked back a few meters by some sort invisible shield, like a mountain ash circle but with no visible projector or power source. They all watch as peter beings to rise, his entire body suspended above the ground as if he is a puppet with invisible strings. He lies, face down in the air for a moment before his body begins to spin, rolling over and over, faster and faster, arms flailing around in the air. There is a sudden spark of light like a camera flash and everyone shields their eyes. When they take their hands or arms away from their faces, Peter is lying on the ground face down. Derek hurries over and finds that the invisible shield has disappeared, so he moves to where Peter is lying and turns him over, his eyes widening and a small gasp escaping him as he sees Peter's face. No one is brave enough to approach the two of them so Scott settles for asking, "Derek, what happened."

It takes a moment before Derek actually realises what happened, and then another before he finds his voice and says, "He, he's young again. He looks like he did when I was in high school. I think… It must have been all of Deucalion's power, when Peter killed him it transferred into his body making him young again."

"Is he alive?" Allison asks, seeming suspicious and shocked at what just happened. As is everyone else, their faces giving them away.

"Yeah, he's breathing."

After that everything moves quickly, the remainders of Deucalion's pack run off, the twins are sulking because they weren't the ones to kill Deucalion, Lydia is scared and has the dead Alpha's blood all over her and Allison is in shock, so Scott consoles them both, Derek manages to get Peter awake and everyone is still confused as to why the power from Deucalion made him young again, Danny is just trying to process everything (as he only found out about all the supernatural stuff in Beacon Hills a few weeks ago) while trying to help a semi-conscious Cora out of the forest, Erica collects the bodies as planned and sets them all on fire as everyone begins to leave, and Isaac, well Isaac rushes to Stiles, kissing him and saying he's so glad it's over.


	5. Emotion and Exile

Derek can feel the icy morning air on his face as he runs through the trees, pushing himself to keep up the fast pace he has set. His tank top and sweat pants aren't doing much for the cold and even with his werewolf resilience, the sting of the ice-like air is getting to him. He keeps going though, pushing through the discomfort, a loud, steady beat coming from his earphones to block out the world. Things haven't been going well for him lately. First of all, other than the fact he hasn't slept well in weeks, he has just managed to rescue his sister Cora, the only remaining member of his pack, from the now dead Deucalion, with the help of people who really didn't like him at all. Secondly, he was still coming to grips with the fact that his uncle now looked like he could be his brother. Thirdly, and probably the worst of his problems, he had violated Stiles, the boy he'd had a crush on… forever. He is as confused about that as Stiles is actually. He has no recollection of the night, just bits and pieces. The one part that seems to be on replay in his head at the moment is Stiles voice saying "Stop Derek! Stop it, get off!", then him replying "I… I can't." When he says that in the memory he can hardly recognise his voice, as if it wasn't really him. He's still trying to figure out what happened and running seems to be the only way to take his mind off all the stupid crap going on recently, so that's what he's doing.

When he returns to his apartment he almost shits himself as Peter appears in the kitchen, smiling creepily. He's still not used to the fact that his uncle is back to looking the way he did when Derek was in high school.

"You're home!" Peter says, almost too cheerfully.

"Yeah. What's up with you?" Derek replies, seeming extremely uninterested in anything the youthful peter in front of him has to say.

"I'm just in a good mood. It's funny how becoming younger and stronger can do that to a person isn't it?"

"Ugh, shut the fuck up with all your wisdom-y shit." Derek makes a beeline for his bedroom and just before he shuts the door he hears Peter mutter "Well someone's Mr grumpy pants today." He considers going back to the kitchen and seriously injuring Peter for that comment, but thinks that he probably wouldn't do much damage anyway.

Derek spends most of Saturday sulking in his room before deciding he needs to do something about the 'Stiles' situation. He wants to go talk to him but first of all he needs to figure out exactly what happened. He focuses on what he remembers of the night and so far it isn't looking good. His memory is vague and all he can remember is dropping Jennifer at the airport then driving home. After that all he has are snippets of what must have been later that night when he was with Stiles. He doesn't even remember when he met up with Stiles or saw him or anything, just those horrific scenes that keep replaying in his head. His insides are twisted with guilt, confusion and regret, the feelings so strong that they haven't faded at all since that night, and that he has actually cried about it once or twice. Not that he would admit that to anyone.

After going through the nights events what must have been a million times and making a few lists, Derek thinks he might have figured out what happened. The rest of the Beacon hills werewolves had been poisoned twice by wolfs bane recently and that had made them do crazy things, things they wouldn't have dreamed of without the influence of the poison, similar to what Derek had done that night. That was theory one. Theory two was that it was like what had happened to Lydia when Peter compelled her to bring him back to life. He got in her head somehow and controlled what she did. Derek wasn't sure which one was true but maybe if he could get Stiles to listen to what he had figured out then they could work it out together.

The Stilinski house looks the same as always, and thankfully Stiles' jeep is parked out front and the Sheriff isn't home yet. It takes Derek a few minutes to find the courage to get out of his car and walk up to the front door. When Stiles opens it he looks confused, surprised and a little scared.

"Derek, what are you doing here?" He says, trying to keep any emotion from his face.

"We need to talk Stiles, about the other night, I… It wasn't… Can I just come in and explain?" His facial expression is pained so Stiles lets him in while trying to figure out whether he should call Isaac and tell him to come over sooner, he decides against it as Isaac will be at his place in fifteen minutes anyway. Stiles motions towards the sofa so Derek walks over and sits down. Stiles positions himself as far away from Derek on the other sofa as possible.

"Okay, um, Stiles, what happened… it wasn't me. I mean it was me but I wasn't controlling what I was doing."  
"Oh my god Derek what do you want? I was happy to just forget about it and have nothing to do with you anymore! Why do you have to bring it up and try to 'redeem yourself'?" Stiles says, clearly annoyed at Derek for bring up the sensitive subject.

"Stiles, I just need you to listen! I don't want anything from you, I just hate to think that you're walking around hating me! I swear on my life that it wasn't me, I wasn't in my head, I can't even remember half of it! Do you really think I would hurt you like that? You know how I feel." Derek blinks away tears and waits a few moments before he gets a response from Stiles.

"Seriously Derek… I don't know what to think anymore. I can't remember most of it either, I had a freaking concussion for god's sake!"

"About the concussion, when did you get it?"

Stiles sighs and gives Derek his 'are you serious' look before replying, "After I dropped Scott at his house after school, I was on my way home and I thought I hit something so I stopped. When I got out of the car there was nothing there and then I got hit on the head. Hence the concussion."

"Wait what time was that?" Derek replies trying to put together a timeline on the night in his head.

"Um… I don't know, probably 3:30?"

"Then it wasn't me Stiles! I couldn't have been the one to hit you, I was at the airport with Jennifer at 3:30!"

"Oh my god. Derek how can I believe that? Who else would have done it? Can you really not remember it?"

"Stiles you're just gonna have to trust me. Shit that sounds terrible seeing as even I wouldn't trust me right now, but the last thing I remember was taking Jennifer to the airport then driving home. After that all I have is bits and pieces of the night and even the thing I remember I don't remember actually doing… anything really."

"So what happened?"

Derek pauses, extremely thankful that Stiles is being logical about this and giving his version of the story a chance. "I've figured out that it was either wolfs bane poisoning like at Lydia's birthday and Motel California or it was someone in my head, like what Peter did to Lydia."

When Derek finishes his sentence they hear someone knock on the door.

"That's Isaac." Stiles says as he gets up off the sofa and walks towards the door, still limping slightly because of the injury on his leg from the night he woke up in the woods. As soon Stiles turns the door handle Isaac bursts in, almost knocking Stiles over before catching him and pulling him into his arms protectively. "What's he doing here?"

"I, am trying to help. Isaac, what happened that night when Stiles got left in the woods, I don't even remember most of it." After that Stiles and Derek explain what they've spent the last quarter-hour talking about, and he looks like he partially believes the story.

"I think it actually was Peter." Isaac says, realisation showing on his face.

"Why?" Derek says, slightly defensive of his uncle.

"Because, don't you remember after I beat the shit out of you, when I was leaving he came outside and asked me, tried to convince me to kill you. He wanted me to Derek, like he'd planned it."

"I don't remember that, I was pretty out of it by the time you'd dragged me outside."

"Yeah, but it makes sense. I almost gave in to him too, I almost went back and killed you, but I knew it wasn't right. Besides I didn't want to be an alpha. I think that's why he wanted me to kill you actually, because even as an alpha I would be an easy match for him. Think about it, the whole thing with Cora might have been his idea as well, his backup plan." Isaac says working out what happened as he talks. "All he wanted was to be an alpha again, to be powerful."

"Oh my god how did we not see this sooner?" Stiles asks, confused and annoyed that they hadn't known.

"Don't you mean 'how did you not see this sooner'. I've know there was something up with him for a while now but I just couldn't put my finger on it. This all makes sense now though."

After a discussion about what to do next and roughly a million apologies to each other, Derek leaves Stiles' house and makes his way home, praying that his acting skills are better than he thinks and that he can convince Peter he knows nothing.

When Derek arrives home, Peter is sitting on the suede sofa watching 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'. "Oh Derek you've got to see this, it's hilarious, Kim and Kanye named their baby 'North West' and the rest of the family is pissed!" Since getting back his younger body, Peter's younger personality had come back partially as well, along with his love of bad reality TV.

"No thank you, that show is shit." Derek says before walking to his bedroom and shutting the door. He turns on his music so that Peter can't hear what he is doing and takes all the things he got from Stiles out of his backpack. Rope, electrical wires, thick rubber gloves and a taser. He has no idea why Stiles had these things in the first place but he doesn't care, because without them he wouldn't be able to restrain Peter, and that's what he was about to do.

He starts preparing to run out into the living room and tie up Peter, but then he hears a muffle scream and a heavy thud on the cement floor followed by a loud crack. Derek rushes out of his room, almost pulling his door off its hinges and finds Scott standing over an unconscious Peter in the middle of the apartment.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Derek asks, trying to figure out what just happened.

"I'm helping you, plus you aren't the only one with a grudge against Peter, young or old, this dickhead is the one who hurt my best friend and I'm not just gonna let that slide. Oh, yeah Stiles told me about today by the way." Scott says a smile appearing across his face. Peter makes a noise at Scott's feet. "Better get him in whatever rehab you have planned because he won't be happy when he wakes up." Scott says before turning and walking to the door. As he leaves he calls, "You're welcome!"

Derek, who still shocked by the events he just witnessed/ heard, doesn't waste any time and in a few minutes Peter is tied in the spare room with the electrical wires.

After the drama of the day Derek is exhausted so he sits on the couch, eats some leftover pizza and begins flipping through the channels until he finds something half-decent to watch. He's half way through an episode of 'Wipeout' when Cora gets home. Peter chooses that exact moment to wake up and they hear muffled groans coming from the back of the back of the apartment.

"What the hell was that?" Cora asks, her facial expression suspicious.

"Nice to see you too, how was your day? Oh that, well I've just figured out that the whole fiasco with Stiles was all Peters fault and all he wanted was to be an alpha again so now he's tied up in the spare room."

"Wait what?"

"I figured out that everything was because of…"

"No I understand, but what the hell? How long are you planning on keeping him there?"

"Until he's not a psychopath."

"Meh, sounds reasonable." Cora replies before sitting on the couch next to Derek, unfazed by what he just told her, and stealing a slice of his pizza. They watch TV until 10:30 when Derek can't keep his eyes open anymore. Cora calls him a softie before helping him into bed.

When Derek wakes up in the morning he can hear voices in his kitchen. He gets up, his hair messy and t-shirt crumpled, and leaves his room to see what's going on. To his utter surprise, when he walks into the kitchen he finds Cora, Isaac, Stiles, Scott and Allison making breakfast and chatting away happily.

"Okay what the hell is going on?" He asks, confused at why there were so many people in his apartment this early.

"We're celebrating!" Lydia says, appearing from behind him, with Erica not far behind.

"What the hell is there to celebrate at 8:30 on a Sunday morning?" Derek grunts, rubbing his eyes.

"We're not celebrating, we're just having breakfast." Cora says, rolling her eyes at both of their comments.

"Whatever, I still say we're celebrating!" Lydia replies, a smile still on her face.

"How are we celebrating Lydia, why?" Stiles says, squinting and looking confused.

"Well, A, you guys manage to lock up Peter, which I say is pretty great considering how long it took me to get all Deu-what's his name's, blood out of my hair, and B, we're celebrating our new happy couple Isaac and Stiles." She says happily, squeezing Stiles cheek. "Oh and also you three," She points to Stiles and Isaac then at Derek, "seem to have gotten over whatever little fight you were having, so I suppose we should all just have a fun while this moment of bliss lasts."

Everyone laughs at Lydia and then helps to carry the food and other bits and pieces to the now-clean dining table that Derek hides in the front room. They all sit around talking and eating, and some of the happiness from the people around him leeches into Derek. He laughs and smiles along with the conversations and for the first time in a long while, he feels happy, like part of a family. Everyone else looks like they're having a good time too. He gets an actual smile across the table from Stiles, and even Isaac makes an effort to put the past behind them by having a normal discussion with Derek.

When everything is cleaned up and everyone has said their goodbyes Derek and Cora are left in the house together.

"You really enjoyed that didn't you?" She asks, for once her question sounds genuine, not mocking or sarcastic.

"Yeah, I did." Derek smiles. "You organised it didn't you?"

"Maybe… You needed it Der, you've been moping about so much lately. After I knew you worked everything out and still didn't look too great, I though a bunch of stupidly hilarious teenagers would cheer you up." She replies, laughing by the time she finishes talking.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. But it actually worked, so thanks, I guess." Derek hugs Cora after that. It's been too long since they hugged last, he thinks as they squeeze each other, and he makes a mental note to hug Cora more. He also makes a mental note not to let her organise things from now on, but he is glad she did this time, just this once.


End file.
